Cayetano: Too early for Palace to claim vindication over NBN-ZTE deal probe

MANILA, Philippines - Opposition Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday said it was too early for Malacañang to claim vindication over statements that there was no direct testimony linking President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the national broadband network deal with China's ZTE Corp. In an interview with GMA's Unang Balita, Cayetano said the Senate has gathered a “vast amount of evidence" pointing to the President's involvement in the controversial deal. “It is very premature for (Executive) Secretary (Eduardo) Ermita to say that. You cannot take one statement and then ignore the other," Cayetano said in an interview with GMA News. “He cannot say that Mrs Arroyo has been cleared of the issue due to lack of direct testimony linking her to the controversy because there were vast amount of evidence on record leading to the Office of the President. Of course, I was referring to the President herself," he added. The senator said if the Palace really thinks Mrs Arroyo has nothing to do with the multi-million national broadband network project, it should cooperate with the Senate committees conducting hearings the issue. “I challenge Malacanang to cooperate. Why don’t they attend the hearings so that we could finally put an end to the issue," Cayetano said. Cayetano said up to the present, Malacañang has refused to give copies of the documents requested by the Senate and bars resource persons from attending the hearings. “Even with the lifting of Executive Order 464, government officials still fail to go the committee hearings," he said. Ermita on Wednesday said the Senate report is a “vindication" for the Arroyo administration. “It is a vindication definitely in the national leadership." He said it was very clear from the start that there is no evidence linking the President to the ZTE scam. In the interview, Cayetano said Ermita should wait for Senate to release its report on its investigation before claiming victory. Cayetano said they are now putting together the committee report to enable them to submit to the Senate their recommendations to prevent a repeat of the NBN-ZTE deal. “We need to submit the report and the remedial legislations and reforms before the Senate goes on break on the second week of June," Cayetano said. He added they are giving the witnesses another two weeks to decide if they will surface although he noted that the Seante “we cannot wait forever because as we are talking Malacañang maybe negotiating new loans similar to the ZTE deal." - Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV